Dennis Murell wrote:
>After using small cell comb without treatments or feeding, and hives in
>three deeps, yields increased to 90 to 120lbs. Wintering losses decreased to
>a negligible level with the hives full of bees and ready to swarm in
the spring.

Hello Dennis,

So you were called in to defend SC when the loudest advocates couldn't
answer themselves...;-) Good to hear you are doing well. However, I
would rather see they had the guts to answer instead of hiding in the
bush and asking you to speak for them. They have been very keen on
telling everybody how wrong we are for a long time now. I'm not the
only one getting fed up with this attitude, a little honesty and truth
wouldn't hurt.

Like you I had problems with the web interface when I tried one time
to write online. A warning to all of you, don't trust the message you
write on BEE-L homepage comes through OK.

You probably looked through the old messages in the relevant threads
and know what's been said. Previous posts indicate that the ability to
handle varroa ( and the virus) is due to lower reproduction rate among
bees managed by the SC advocates. That would make a perfectly logical
and scientifically viable explanation of the results claimed by them.
And unless otherwise proved I think we can safely regard it to also be
the truth in their case.

>I left commercial beekeeping right after I started using small cell comb.

I'm getting a bit confused here. If you were getting this kind of
crops, why were you quitting as commercial beek? If you were getting
70-80 kg per hive, wouldn't it make a reasonable income? You seem to
be about the only beek (on this list at least) that claim success
without using any treatments for mites. I'm really curious how you
manage that.

-- 
Regards

P-O Gustafsson
[log in to unmask]  http://beeman.se

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---